One night Sri Adi Shankaracharya, the great Advaita master, was desperately searching for something on the street outside his small hut. When his pupil returned from his errand, he saw this and curiously asked the Master, “Aacharya, what are you looking for here on the street at this hour?”

Shankaracharya replied, “I lost my needle, I am looking for it.”

The pupil joined him in the search, but after searching for a while, he asked, “Can you try and recollect where you might have dropped it?”

Shankaracharya said, “Of course, I remember. I dropped it near the bed in the hut.”

The pupil, utterly astonished at the strange answer, said, “Aacharya, you say you lost it inside the house, then why are we looking for it outside?”

Shankaracharya innocently replied, “There is no oil left in the lamp, so it is pitch dark inside the house. Hence I thought of searching for it outside, since there is enough street light here.”

While holding back his laugh, the pupil said, “If you lost your needle inside the house, how could you even expect to find it outside?”

Shankaracharya simply smiled back at the pupil and the pupil got the message behind the acharya’s puzzling act.

Isn’t that what we do? We run to far away temples and walk up mountains to search for what we have lost inside ourselves. We are all seeking outside what we have lost inside us. Why? Just because it is pitch dark Inside.

Learning

We must light the lamp inside us and find our lost treasure right therein. We perform so many rituals, go on pilgrimages and do so many other things externally in search of the Lord; who is within us. We rarely try to seek the divinity within. Of course this also requires the grace of the Lord and one must have the yearning or quest to seek divinity within. When this is really earnest Lord sends us the Master who guides us and lights our path with knowledge of the self. The main thing though is faith and obedience to the words and message of a true Master.